Demolitions

Context

In 1955 Panamanian president José Antonio Remón Cantera was assassinated. Winston Churchill resigned as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. Jonas Salk's polio vaccine was introduced. West Germany was recognized as a sovereign state and joined NATO. Disneyland opened in Anaheim, California. Gunsmoke premiered on CBS. Juan Peron was ousted by coup in Argentina. Racial segregation in interstate buses was banned. Rosa Parks kicked off the Montgomery bus boycott.

Top grossing films of 1955 included Lady and the Tramp, Rebel Without a Cause, and Oklahoma. Nobakov's Lolita was published in Paris. William Faulkner won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature for A Fable and Tennessee Williams won the Pulitzer for Drama for Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The top pop songs were Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock Around the Clock", Tennessee Ernie Ford's "Sixteen Tons", and Mitch Miller's "Yellow Rose of Texas."